Modem map displays, particularly those used in aircraft for flight planning and management, are capable of displaying a considerable amount of information such as flight navigation planning information and terrain information. The terrain information generally consists of situational awareness information (obstacles, landmarks, etc.) and warnings that, among other things, may indicate where the aircraft may potentially impact such terrain features may be in the aircraft's flight path. The flight planning and navigation information generally consists of flight path, altitude and other information useful to the flight crew in planning and following a particular path (and altitude) of the aircraft over the ground to reach a desired destination. Available “airways” are often superimposed upon a lateral map display to give a combined representation of designated flight paths and terrain features.
An airway represents a designated flight path that a flight crew may follow to navigate their aircraft to a predetermined destination. An airway is, in general, composed of named waypoints defined in space and associated navigation aids. An airway is a line segment connecting various waypoints. As used herein, the terms “navigation” and “navigational” information are intended to refer collectively to such airway, waypoint, and other flight path information. A navigational display generally provides a graphical representation of such navigation information superimposed on a lateral terrain map.
Modem avionics electronic displays are capable of displaying airways similar to a paper airways chart. FIG. 1 is a highly simplified representation of prior art static graphical airway display 10. For simplicity the terrain features associated with the underlying lateral terrain map have been omitted from FIG. 1. Small aircraft shaped symbol 12 located approximately in the center of display 10 represents the current position and flight direction of the aircraft with respect to the underlying terrain map. Circle 14-1 surrounding aircraft symbol 12 represents the range scale selected by the user, in this case for example, about 50 NM. The airways for this terrain location are shown by various line segments 16 extending in different directions and intersecting at various waypoint nodes 18 where airways 16 cross or meet. Airway identification (ID) symbols or names 19 (e.g., “G001”) are shown within rectangular boxes. Reference number 19 is intended to refer to all of the identification symbols on display 10 and reference number 16 to all of the airways. Other information may also be provided on the display. It is not unusual for prior art airways display 10 to show hundreds of symbols 19, depending upon the range setting selected by the user. The larger the range setting, the greater the number of symbols 19, airways 16 and nodes 18 within the displayed map area The data needed to display the terrain features and the available airways and waypoints are stored in memory on the aircraft. This is well known in the art.
Since the electronic display is generally much smaller than the corresponding paper chart and since there are large numbers of airways, waypoints and identification (ID) symbols in most regions of interest, the graphic electronics display can only meaningfully show this information in a small range, for example, usually ≦50 nautical miles (NM) around the current aircraft position. At larger ranges the display can become very cluttered and can be difficult for the flight crew to find the navigational information of interest. Further, prior art displays are generally static, that is the display may not change unless the range setting or aircraft location changes. In general, the flight crew may need to memorize and/or read text based information, such as airway IDs and waypoint IDs (names of airway entry and exit points), in order to define the airways to be used for the aircraft flight path and then manually input such text based information into the flight management system. This process can become increasingly burdensome when, for example, the same identifiers (IDs) apply to multiple locations on the graphic map display and/or when the flight crew is not familiar with the IDs for a particular airway path. More time and attention is then needed to identify the correct airway entry and exit points, to verify the text information and to correctly enter this information into the flight management system to insure that the correct flight path is established. The problem is potentially exacerbated when multiple intersecting airways may need to be used to reach the desired destination. In general, once the airway information is entered into the flight management system the aircraft will be either manually or automatically directed along the selected flight path. Proper selection and entry of the airway(s) information is important in order to safely traverse the intervening airspace to arrive at the desired destination. Thus, there continues to be a need for improved means and methods for dealing with the clutter found on prior art graphical navigational and terrain displays, to be able to more easily view airways of interest to the flight crew, and to more simply and more accurately select those desired to be traversed by the aircraft.
Accordingly, it is desirable to be able to graphically visualize and manage the desired airways in both large and small-scale displays without the burden of a cluttered screen. In addition, it is desirable to be able to graphically select those airways and entry and exit waypoints points desired to be used and automatically enter such information into the flight management system. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.